Sungbo’s Eredo, said to have been built by the Queen of Sheba, is an archaeological site with huge tourism potentials. However, it has been ignored
By Leonid Lantsman
Along the 121 highway, part of the continent-spanning Trans African Highway around Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, sit vast and luxuriant stretches of rainforest. The rainforest drapes the fabled Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160-kilometre system of earthworks comprising of ditches and ramparts, in certain sections, as deep as 20 metres.
The beginning of the Eredo is linked to Bilikisu Sungbo, a queen who lived 10 centuries ago. Some claim that she was the mythical Queen of Sheba, who was mentioned in the Bible or Queen Bilquis in the Q’uran. Chief Olaitan Olugbosi, Baale of Oke Eiri, believes that Sungbo was the mythical Queen of Sheba.
Whoever Sungbo was, she clearly wielded great influence among her subjects. The complex structure named after her is testimony to such influence. Extending in a circle around modern Ijebu-Ode, the complexity of the pattern means that workers would have only had the simplest tools available to construct what modern surveyors reckon is close to a perfect circle around Ijebu-Ode.
The ditch appears in a V-shaped slope, but there are areas where the steep sides can be seen showing that silt, clay and iron-oxide seeped out, hardened and laterised on exposure to air.
In some sections, the defensive wall takes the form of swampland, festering with insects and mosquitoes, which would have served as much of a defensive purpose as the actual earthworks itself.
According to Professor Patrick Darling, an archeologist with African Legacy, an organisation that works to bring Africa’s forgotten monuments to worldwide attention, the Eredo is the largest single structure in the 16,000 kilometre long earthworks in the Benin Kingdom area. The works cover 6500 square kilometres and were all dug by the Edo people.
Professor Darling has conducted radiocarbon dating, using discarded bits of charcoal found amongst the ramparts. His results show that the Benin system of earthworks was built roughly between 800 A.D and 1500 A.D., under different rulers and possibly for different reasons. The Eredo itself dates back to the 10th Century and is the largest of all the single constructions.
In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct and may be the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet.
The considerable political and social cohesion needed to command the large numbers of workers shows that political development in the rainforest kingdoms of West Africa was much more advanced than previously thought. Professor Darling’s work and the attention that has been placed on the social and political development of the Edo people shows that there were highly sophisticated societies present in the rainforests at roughly the same time as the savannah kingdoms of the eastern and southern Africa. The societies that constructed the earthworks must have had sufficient labour, sufficient food, experience of building under similar conditions, and were not under great threats of security to be able to construct works of such scope.
However, looking at maps of the earthworks and physically being in the presence of the Eredo raise the question: Why? In the middle of the rainforest, there is no apparent reason to build such massive constructions. One theory is that Queen Sungbo, who was childless and without family, wished to create a legacy to be remembered by. Another theory posits that the earthworks were built to keep out marauding elephants, and by the population of African forest elephants at Omo Biosphere, it is known that much larger populations were present a thousand years ago and could have proved a menace for the Edo farmers and townspeople.
Yet, another theory points to the unifying factor of defensive earthworks. As Professor Darling said: “All over this region, you find that the societies that had ramparts seem to have been more cohesive and to have survived far longer against outsiders.” But perhaps the most important reason may be the spiritual one. Local residents speak of the many devils and spirits that reside in the ditch. As a sort of limbo between the spiritual and the physical world, the ditch serves as defence against wayward spirits and angry deities.
Centuries ago, explorers witnessed villagers casting their dead into the ditches. For people who lived close to the rainforest, the rainforest outside of the Eredo represented something unknown, and for the villagers that was something to fear. Even today, villagers throw charms into the ditch to prevent bad luck from falling upon them. The spiritual aspect of the Eredo is attested to by the various shrines and fetishes that are placed all along its 160 kilometre length.
The supposed spot of Queen Sungbo’s grave at Oke Eri has become a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims. Though the Federal Government carried out some development of the area in the 1970s, it is currently decrepit and apparently beyond the capability of the local government, which wants to develop its tourism potential.
That this magnificent structure has gone unattended to by the federal government is testament to the inefficiency of the nation’s tourism efforts to prevent the deterioration of the cultural treasures that are present throughout the country. Parts of the Eredo have been ravaged, as local villagers excavate the ramparts to use in the construction of their homes and buildings. In many places, the ramparts and the ditch are completely overgrown and close to impassable. One large section was even bulldozed by the World Bank for an irrigation project.
A villager, said: “We have nothing from the federal government, nothing from the local government; they just don’t care about our legacy. This place is important to us, this is our culture, this is all of Nigeria’s culture and they let it waste away.”
However, the international attention that archeologist Patrick Darling has placed on Nigeria’s cultural heritage is making the treasures of the country visible to the entire world. And as one other villager said: “Eventually a structure as large and important as the Eredo will be the national pride of the Nigeria and the world will take notice.”
Did you Enjoy this story? you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Random Post
- July 21, 2008 -- Quotes; 28 July, 2008 (0)
- March 17, 2008 -- Manipulating UNESCO (0)
- May 26, 2008 -- Conquerors Of Europe (0)
- April 28, 2008 -- Rage Of Kano Hoodlums (1)
- March 25, 2008 -- Patriot Of All Seasons (1)
- April 22, 2008 -- Not Scared of A Fight (0)
- January 5, 2009 -- We Will Inspire Other Youths (0)
- June 30, 2008 -- A Breakthrough (0)
- March 30, 2009 -- Ending Violence Against Women—Akunna Ejim (2)
- September 22, 2008 -- If Bola Ige Were Alive—Sola Adeyeye (11)
No tags for this post.
Related posts
Comment